If) 


THE  STORY 
OF  A  GOOD  WOMAN 

JANE  LATHROP 
STANFORD 


BY 
DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

PRESIDENT  OF 
LELAND  STANFORD  JR.  UNIVERSITY 


BOSTON 

AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION 
1912 


,5 


Copyright,  1919 
AMERICA*  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

HE  substance  of  this  little 
book  was  given  as  a  me- 
morial address  on  "Foun- 
ders' Day"  at  Stanford 
University,  March  the 
ninth,  1909.  It  was  published  in  the 
Popular  Science  Monthly  for  August, 
1909,  and  it  is  here  reprinted  with  a  few 
verbal  changes.  It  is  not  in  any  sense  a 
character  study  nor  an  appreciation.  It 
contains  no  reference  to  personal  pecul- 
iarities whether  of  strength  or  weakness, 
except  as  these  may  bear  on  the  one  great 
purpose  that  filled  the  later  years  of  the 
life  of  Mrs.  Stanford. 

Jane  Lathrop  Stanford,  the  daughter 
of  Dyer  Lathrop  and  Jane  Ann  Shields, 
was  born  in  Albany,  New  York,  on  Au- 
gust 25,  1828.  She  died  in  Honolulu, 


257821 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


Hawaii,  of  a  rupture  of  the  coronary  ar- 
tery on  February  28,  1905.  On  Septem- 
ber 30,  1850,  she  was  married  to  Leland 
Stanford,  formerly  of  Albany,  New 
York,  then  of  Port  Washington,  Wiscon- 
sin. Soon  after  their  marriage,  they 
made  their  home  in  California,  at  first  at 
Michigan  Bluff  in  Placer  County,  later 
in  Sacramento  and  San  Francisco,  with 
a  summer  residence  on  the  estate  known 
as  Palo  Alto,  which  became  later  the 
campus  of  Leland  Stanford  Junior  Uni- 
versity. Leland  Stanford  was  born  in 
Watervliet,  New  York,  on  March  9, 
1824,  and  died  at  Palo  Alto  on  June  20, 
1893.  He  was  "war  governor"  of  Cali- 
fornia in  the  sixties  and  later  United 
States  Senator.  With  his  townsmen  of 
Sacramento,  Collis  P.  Huntington,  Mark 
Hopkins  and  Charles  Crocker,  he  con- 
structed the  first  trans-continental  rail- 
way, the  Central  Pacific,  from  Sacra- 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


mento  to  Ogden.  Later  from  this  was 
built  up  the  whole  Southern  Pacific  Sys- 
tem, the  entire  stock  of  which  until  about 
the  year  1900  was  held  jointly  by  these 
men  and  by  their  heirs  or  estates.  The 
only  son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stanford,  Le- 
land  Stanford,  Jr.,  was  born  on  May  14, 
1868,  at  Sacramento,  and  died  of  heart 
failure  arising  from  "Roman  Fever"  in 
Florence,  on  March  13,  1884.  The 
young  man  was  highly  studious  and  es- 
pecially interested  in  museums  and  their 
contents.  The  Stanfords  planned  to 
build  for  him  a  large  museum  at  Palo 
Alto,  and  the  plans  for  such  a  building, 
having  the  motif  of  the  Franciscan  Mis- 
sion of  San  Juan  Capistrano,  were  drawn 
by  the  great  architect,  H.  H.  Richardson 
of  Boston. 

After  the  death  of  the  boy  and  more  or 
less  under  the  inspiration  of  educational 
ideals  derived  from  their  friend,  Louis 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


Agassiz,  the  Stanfords  decided  on  the 
larger  plan  of  the  University  to  be  dedi- 
cated to  the  memory  of  their  son,  to  be 
built  on  the  site  set  apart  on  the  Palo  Alto 
estate  for  the  museum,  the  buildings  to 
retain  the  original  motif  of  the  former. 
"The  children  of  California  shall  be  my 
children"  was  the  expression  of  Mr.  Stan- 
ford's purpose. 

With  this  simple  explanation  of  the 
conditions  existing  at  the  opening  of  the 
University  on  October  1,  1891,  the  rest 
of  this  little  book  may  speak  for  itself. 

D.  S.  J. 


rflHERE  stands  a  castle  in  the  heart  of 

Spain, 

Builded  of  stone,  as  if  to  stand  for  aye, 
With  tile-roof  red  against  the  azure  sky, 
Where  skies  are  bluest,  in  the  heart  of  Spain. 
Castle  so  stately  men  build  not  again; 
'Neath  its  broad  arches,  in  its  patio  fair, 
And  through  its  cloisters,  open  everywhere, 
I  wander  as  I  will,  in  sun  or  rain. 
Its  inmost  secret  unto  me  is  known, 
For  mine  the  castle  is.     Nor  mine  alone, — 
'T  is  thine,  dear  heart,  to  have  and  hold  alway ; 
*T  is  all  the  world's  as  well  as  mine  and  thine ; 
For  whoso  enters  its  broad  gate  shall  say: 
"I  dwell  within  this  castle:  it  is  mine." 


THE  STORY  OF  A  GOOD 
WOMAN 

WISH  in  these  pages  to 
tell  the  story  of  a  noble 
life,  of  one  of  the  brav- 
est, wisest,  most  patient, 
most  courageous  and 
most  devout  of  all  the  women  who  have 
ever  lived.  I  want  to  give  to  those  of  the 
university  to  whom  its  founders  are  now 
but  a  memory  some  lasting  picture  of  the 
woman  who  saved  the  university  which 
she  and  her  honored  husband  founded  in 
faith  and  hope,  and  who  thus  made  pos- 
sible all  the  good  to  humanity  which  may 
abide  in  its  future.  I  shall  try  to  make 
my  story  as  impersonal  as  I  can,  as  though 
I  spoke  not  for  myself  but  for  all  of  you 
men  and  women  of  Stanford,  those  that 


THE  STORY  OF 


are  and  those  that  are  to  be.  I  shall 
speak  with  all  gratitude  towards  the 
many  who  have  helped  in  the  work  of  sav- 
ing the  great  fund  involved,  for  education, 
learning  and  research,  and  with  all  char- 
ity towards  those  whose  interests  or  whose 
conscientious  conviction  ranged  them  on 
the  other  side.  If  I  am  successful,  you 
will  see  more  clearly  than  ever  before  the 
lone,  sad  figure  of  the  mother  of  the  uni- 
versity, strong  in  her  trust  in  God  and  in 
her  loyalty  to  her  husband's  purposes, 
happy  only  in  the  belief  that  in  carrying 
out  their  joint  plans  for  training  the  youth 
of  California  in  virtue  and  usefulness  she 
was  acting  the  part  which  in  God's  provi- 
dence had  been  assigned  to  her. 

The  university  called  "Leland  Stan- 
ford Junior"  was  founded  on  Love,  in  a 
sense  which  is  true  of  no  other.  Its  cor- 
ner-stone was  love — love  of  a  boy  extended 
to  the  love  of  the  children  of  humanity. 
[2] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


It  was  continued  through  love — the  love 
of  a  noble  woman  for  her  husband;  the 
faith  of  both  in  love's  ideals — and  as  an 
embodiment  of  the  power  of  love  Stan- 
ford University  stands  today. 

It  is  fitting  that  these  statements 
should  not  stand  as  mere  words.  I  wish 
that  in  your  hearts  they  may  become  re- 
alities. Not  many  of  you  as  students  or 
as  alumni  have  seen  Mrs.  Stanford.  The 
last  of  the  freshmen  classes  which  she 
knew  took  its  departure  in  1909.  Still 
fewer  have  known  Leland  Stanford, 
broad-minded,  stout-hearted,  shrewd, 
kindly  and  full  of  hope,  a  man  of  action 
ripened  into  a  philosopher.  Stanford 
University  has  now  reached  its  twenty- 
second  year.  During  the  first  two  years 
of  its  history  it  was  the  hopeful  experi- 
ment of  Leland  Stanford.  The  next 
seven  years  its  history  was  recorded  in  the 
heart-throbs  of  his  wife.  The  years  that 
[3] 


THE  STORY  OF 


follow  with  all  their  vicissitudes  have  been 
years  of  calmness  and  certainty,  for  the 
final  outcome  is  no  longer  open  to  ques- 
tion. 

It  is  my  purpose  in  these  pages  to  tell 
a  little  of  the  story  of  the  six  dark  years, 
the  years  from  eighteen  ninety-three  to 
eighteen  ninety-nine,  those  days  in  which 
the  future  of  a  university  hung  by  a  single 
thread,  but  that  thread  "the  greatest  thing 
in  the  world,"  the  love  of  a  good  woman. 
If  for  an  instant  in  all  these  years  this 
good  woman  had  wavered  in  her  purposes, 
if  for  a  moment  she  had  yielded  to  fear 
or  even  to  the  pressure  of  worldly  wis- 
dom, this  story  could  not  have  been  told. 
The  story  would  have  been  finished  before 
it  began.  The  strain,  the  agony,  was  all 
hers,  and  hers  the  final  victory.  And  so 
any  account  of  these  years  must  take  the 
form  of  eulogy.  "Eulogy,"  in  its  old 
Greek  meaning,  is  "speaking  well,"  and 
[4] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


my  every  word  must  be  a  word  of  praise. 
It  is  proper,  too,  that  as  the  President  of 
Stanford  through  all  these  trying  years 
I  should  speak  these  words,  and  even  that 
I  should  give  this  history  from  my  own 
standpoint,  because  there  were  few  be- 
sides myself  who  knew  the  facts  in  those 
days.  Some  of  these  facts  we  can  well 
afford  to  forget.  For  the  rest,  the  facts 
in  issue  will  appear  only  as  needed  for 
the  background,  before  which  we  may  see 
the  figure  of  Mrs.  Stanford. 

I  first  saw  the  Governor  and  Mrs.  Stan- 
ford at  Bloomington,  Indiana,  in  March, 
1891.  At  that  time,  Mr.  Stanford,  un- 
der the  advice  of  Andrew  D.  White,  late 
the  President  of  Cornell,  asked  me  to  come 
to  California  to  take  charge  of  the  new 
institution  which  he  was  soon  to  open. 
He  told  me  the  story  of  their  son,  of  their 
buried  hopes,  of  their  days  and  nights  of 
sorrow,  and  of  how  he  had  once  awakened 
[  5  ] 


THE  STORY  OF 


from  a  troubled  night  with  these  words 
on  his  lips:  "The  children  of  California 
shall  be  my  children."  He  told  me  the 
extent  of  his  property  and  of  his  purposes 
in  its  use.  He  hoped  to  build  a  university 
of  the  highest  order,  one  which  should  give 
the  best  of  teaching  in  all  its  departments, 
one  which  should  be  the  center  of  invention 
and  research,  giving  to  each  student  the 
secret  of  success  in  life.  No  cost  was  to 
be  spared,  no  pains  to  be  avoided,  in  bring- 
ing this  university  to  the  highest  possible 
effectiveness.  In  all  this  Mrs.  Stanford 
was  most  deeply  interested,  supporting 
his  purposes,  guarding  his  strength,  alert 
at  every  point  and  always  in  the  fullest 
sympathy. 

Mr.  Stanford  explained  that  thus  far 
only  buildings  and  land,  the  Palo  Alto 
farm  and  the  great  farms  at  Vina  and 
Gridley,  had  been  given,  but  that  prac- 
tically the  whole  of  the  common  estate 
[  6  ] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


would  go  in  time  to  the  university,  when 
the  founders  had  passed  away.  If  he 
should  himself  survive,  the  gift  would  be 
his  and  hers  jointly,  though  the  final  giv- 
ing would  be  left  to  him.  If  the  wife 
should  survive,  the  property  would  be  hers, 
and  in  her  hands  would  lie  the  final  joy 
of  completion.  Mr.  Stanford  gave  his 
reason  for  not  turning  over  the  property 
at  once:  He  would  not  deprive  his  wife 
of  a  controlling  part  in  the  future.  It 
was  not  his  wish  that  she  should  sit  idly 
by  while  others  should  create  the  univer- 
sity. His  wife  was  his  equal  partner  as 
well  as  his  closest  friend.  So  long  as  she 
lived  it  was  his  wish  that  in  the  building 
of  the  university  she  should  take  an  equal 
part.  This  attitude  of  chivalry  in  all  this 
needs  this  word  of  explanation,  for  it 
shaped  the  whole  future  history  of  the  uni- 
versity endowment.  It  was  the  source 
of  many  of  the  embarrassments  which  f  ol- 
[7] 


THE  STORY  OP 


lowed  and,  perhaps  as  well,  of  the  final 
success. 

The  university  was  opened  on  the  first 
day  of  October,  1891,  a  clear,  bright, 
golden,  California  day,  typical  of  Califor- 
nia October  and  full  of  good  omen,  as 
all  days  in  California  are  likely  to  be. 
There  were  on  the  opening  day  465  stu- 
dents, with  only  15  instructors,  and  the 
first  duty  of  the  president  was  to  telegraph 
for  more  teachers,  laying  tribute  on  many 
institutions  in  the  east  and  in  the  west. 

Two  years  followed,  with  their  varied 
adventures  which  I  need  not  now  relate. 
It  was  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  June, 
1893,  that  the  university  community  was 
startled  by  the  sudden  death  of  Leland 
Stanford. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  now  to  praise  the 

founder  of  the  university.     Others  have 

done  this  and  his  name  belongs  to  the 

world.     One  single  incident  at  his  funeral 

[8] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


is  firmly  fixed  in  my  memory.  The 
clergyman,  Horatio  Stebbins,  in  his 
stately  fashion,  told  a  story  of  the  Greeks 
doing  honor  to  a  dead  hero;  then,  turning 
to  the  pall-bearers,  stalwart  railway  men, 
he  said:  "Gentle  up  your  strength  a  lit- 
tle, for  'tis  a  man  ye  bear."  A  man,  in 
all  high  senses,  in  the  noblest  of  words,  a 
man!  was  Leland  Stanford. 

After  the  founder's  death  the  estate  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  courts.  The  will  was 
in  probate,  the  debts  of  the  estate  had  to 
be  paid,  the  various  ramifications  of  busi- 
ness had  to  be  disentangled,  and  mean- 
while came  on  the  fierce  panic  of  1893. 
All  university  matters  stopped  for  the 
summer.  Salaries  could  not  be  paid  until 
it  was  found  out  by  the  courts  by  whom, 
to  whom  and  from  whom  salaries  were  due. 
All  incomes  from  business  ceased.  The 
great  corporations  had  no  earnings;  the 
common  man  suffered  with  them. 

[  9] 


THE  STORY  OF 


After  Mr.  Stanford's  death,  Mrs.  Stan- 
ford kept  to  her  rooms  for  a  week  or  two. 
She  had  much  to  plan  and  much  to  con- 
sider. From  every  point  of  view  of 
worldly  wisdom  it  was  clearly  her  duty 
to  close  the  university  until  the  estate  was 
settled  and  in  her  hands,  its  debts  paid 
and  the  panic  over.  Her  own  fortune  was 
the  estate  itself.  Outside  of  a  collection 
of  rare  jewels  given  by  her  husband  she 
had  practically  nothing  of  her  own,  save 
the  community  estate.  This  could  not  be 
hers  until  the  payment  of  all  debts  and 
legacies  had  been  completed.  These 
debts  and  legacies  amounted  as  a  whole 
to  eight  millions  of  dollars.  In  normal 
times  there  was  hardly  money  enough  in 
California  to  pay  this  amount;  but  these 
were  not  normal  times  and  there  was  no 
money  in  California  to  pay  anything  to 
anybody. 

After  these  two  weeks,  Mrs.  Stanford 
[10] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


called  me  to  her  house  to  say  that  the  die 
was  cast.  She  was  going  ahead  with  the 
university.  She  would  turn  over  to  us 
whatever  money  she  could  get.  We  must 
come  down  to  bed  rock  on  expenses,  but 
with  the  help  of  the  Lord  and  the  memory 
of  her  husband  the  university  must  go 
ahead  and  develop  its  character  in  the 
hope  of  better  times  ahead. 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  do  this,  as  one 
incident  will  show.  There  could  be  no 
regularity  in  the  payment  of  salaries.  All 
salary  contracts  had  to  be  drawn  up  with 
this  understanding.  If  a  deficit  occurred 
at  the  end  of  the  year,  the  president  must 
make  it  good.  In  the  eyes  of  the  law  the 
university  professors  were  Mrs.  Stan- 
ford's personal  servants.  They  had  no 
other  status,  and  the  university  had  as 
such  no  separate  or  official  existence.  As 
personal  servants  it  was  finally  arranged 
that  Mrs.  Stanford  should  receive  from 


THE  STORY  OF 


the  estate  a  special  allowance  for  their 
maintenance.  This  allowance  must  pay 
their  salaries,  while  a  registration  tax  of 
twenty  dollars  per  year  on  each  student 
had  to  cover  all  other  expenses.  Tuition 
had  been  free,  and  it  has  remained  so  ex- 
cept for  this  incidental  fee,  since  raised  to 
$30  per  year.  Even  these  two  sources  of 
income  were  not  accessible  at  first.  The 
two  great  farms  of  Palo  Alto  and  Vina, 
each  a  principality  in  itself,  run  as  experi- 
ment stations  in  horse-breeding  and  in 
viticulture,  were  centers  of  loss,  neither 
of  them  up  to  that  time  having  yielded  a 
dollar  of  income. 

A  single  incident  will  make  this  condi- 
tion vivid. 

At  one  time  in  August,  1893,  Mrs. 
Stanford  received  from  Judge  Coffey's 
court  the  sum  of  $500,  to  be  paid  to  her 
personal  servants.  It  was  paid  in  a  bag 
of  twenty-five  twenty-dollar  gold  pieces. 
[12] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


Mrs.  Stanford  called  me  in  and  said  her 
servants  could  wait;  there  might  be  some 
professors  in  need,  and  I  might  divide  the 
money  among  them.  I  put  the  money  un- 
der my  pillow  and  did  not  sleep  that  night. 
Money  was  too  great  a  rarity  with  us  then. 
Next  morning,  on  Sunday,  I  set  out  to 
give  ten  professors  fifty  dollars  apiece.  I 
found  not  one  who  could  give  change  for 
a  twenty-dollar  gold  piece,  and  so  I  di- 
vided the  sum  into  ten  parts,  five  of  forty 
dollars  and  five  of  sixty  dollars.  The 
same  afternoon,  after  I  had  gone  the 
rounds,  $13,000  was  brought  down  from 
the  city  for  us  servants  as  back  pay  for 
our  services  already  given.  This  sum 
was  distributed.  After  this  Mrs.  Stan- 
ford sent  word  that  as  we  had  some  money 
now  perhaps  we  could  spare  her  the  $500. 
I  drew  a  check  for  the  sum  against 
a  long-vanished  bank  account,  and 
covered  the  amount  in  the  morning 
[13] 


THE  STORY  OF 


with  the  aid  of  some  of  my  associates. 

The  incident  again  will  explain  why  for 
six  years  the  professors  were  paid  by  per- 
sonal checks  of  the  president  and  why 
these  checks  were  not  always  issued  regu- 
larly, nor  for  the  full  amounts.  We  were 
all  struggling  together  to  do  the  best  we 
could  with  whatever  might  come  to  us. 
There  was  no  certainty  ahead.  Most  of 
the  property  was  of  such  a  character  that 
it  could  not  be  divided,  but  must  go  in 
blocks  of  millions  if  it  went  at  all,  and  no 
one  had  millions  at  his  disposal  for  invest- 
ment anywhere.  The  estate  held  a  one- 
fourth  interest  in  the  Southern  Pacific 
System  and  of  all  its  many  ramifications. 
Kept  together  it  could  maintain  itself 
with  its  representatives  on  the  directorate, 
but  if  any  division  whatever,  it  would  be 
easy  to  "freeze  out"  the  small  holder. 

I  pass  by  many  minor  incidents  of 
struggle  and  economy.  The  farms  had  to 
[14] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


be  abruptly  closed,  the  employees  all  paid 
and  dismissed,  no  easy  task.  Then  they 
had  to  be  forced  to  yield  an  income.  This 
required  wise  management  and  rigid  econ- 
omy at  the  same  time,  but  for  all  this  Mrs. 
Stanford  proved  adequate.  She  learned 
her  lessons  as  she  went  along  and  took  a 
wholesome  pleasure  in  the  Spartan  sim- 
plicity of  her  life.  If  all  else  failed,  she 
had  still  the  jewels  to  fall  back  upon;  and 
she  steadily  refused  to  consider  the  advice 
(almost  unanimous)  of  her  counsel  to 
close  the  university  or  most  of  its  depart- 
ments until  some  more  favorable  time. 
In  1895  she  invited  the  pioneer  class,  then 
graduating,  to  a  reception  in  her  city 
home,  one  reason  being  that  it  was  the 
last  class  that  could  ever  graduate.  We 
had  nothing  to  run  on,  save  the  precarious 
servant  allowance  then  fixed  at  $12,500 
per  month  and  liable  to  be  cut  to  nothing 
at  any  day.  Our  expenses  in  1893  had 
[15] 


THE  STORY  OF 


been  nearly  $18,000  per  month.  Some- 
times we  could  sell  a  few  horses  from  the 
stock  farm,  but  it  was  never  clear  that  the 
stock  farm  belonged  to  the  university  and 
not  to  the  Stanford  estate,  and  every  dol- 
lar we  secured  for  use  in  this  way  piled 
up  the  possibilities  of  litigation.  All 
these  days  were  brightened  by  the  steady 
support  of  her  friends  and  advisers,  Sam- 
uel F.  Leib,  Timothy  Hopkins,  Francis 
E.  Spencer  and  Russell  Wilson,  as  well  as 
by  the  sympathy  of  her  faithful  secretary, 
Miss  Bertha  Berner.  Mr.  Hopkins  fur- 
nished the  Seaside  Laboratory  and  the 
Library  of  Biology  and  paid  unasked 
many  minor  expenses,  his  left  hand  not 
taking  receipts  for  what  his  right  hand 
was  doing.  No  one  can  tell  how  much  the 
university  owes  to  these  men,  who  in  the 
darkest  days  planned  to  make  the  future 
possible.  Very  much,  too,  the  university 
owed  to  the  fraternal  devotion  of  Mrs. 
[16] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


Stanford's  brother,  Mr.  Charles  G.  La- 
throp,  who  cared  with  sympathetic  hand 
for  the  scanty  receipts  of  these  harassed 
days.  The  warm  sympathy  of  Thomas 
Welton  Stanford  of  Melbourne,  Leland 
Stanford's  younger  brother,  came  from 
across  the  seas.  His  gift  of  the  Library 
Building  came  in  time  to  be  most  welcome. 

At  last,  adjustment  of  one  kind  after 
another  being  made,  there  was  a  glimpse 
of  daylight,  when  we  were  thrust  without 
warning  into  a  still  darker  night. 

The  United  States  government  brought 
suit  for  fifteen  millions  for  the  purpose  of 
tying  up  everything  in  the  Stanford  es- 
tate until  the  debts  of  the  Central  Pacific 
Railway  should  be  paid.  It  was  not 
claimed  that  the  university  owed  any- 
thing, or  that  the  Stanford  estate  owed 
anything,  or  that  the  railway  owed  any- 
thing on  which  payment  was  due.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  when  the  time  came  the 
[17] 


THE  STORY  OF 


Southern  Pacific  Company  paid  in  full 
every  dollar  it  owed  the  government  as 
soon  as  it  became  due,  and  with  full  inter- 
est. There  was  never  any  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  it  would  not  do  so  and  never  any 
reason  to  suppose  that  it  could  afford  not 
to  pay  this  debt,  for  the  power  to  control 
the  line  from  Ogden  to  San  Francisco, 
called  the  Central  Pacific,  was  in  itself  an 
enormous  asset,  worth  the  value  of  this 
debt.  Failure  to  pay  this  debt  would 
have  meant  loss  of  control  of  the  most 
valuable  single  factor  in  any  continental 
railroad  system. 

The  claim  of  the  United  States  was  se- 
cured by  a  second  mortgage  on  the  Central 
Pacific.  It  was  currently  supposed  that 
the  railway  would  be  sold  to  satisfy  the 
first  mortgage  and  that  it  would  realize 
no  more  than  this  sum,  leaving,  as  Mr. 
Huntington  cynically  expressed  it,  noth- 
ing but  "two  streaks  of  rust  and  the  right 
[18] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


of  way."  The  government  proposed,  by 
a  sort  of  injunction,  to  hold  up  the  Stan- 
ford property  to  be  finally  seized,  in  case 
the  Southern  Pacific  Railway  System 
should  at  some  future  time  be  found  in 
debt.  There  was  no  warrant  in  law  or 
in  good  policy  for  this  suit.  One  United 
States  judge  spoke  of  it  as  "the  crime  of 
the  century."  It  is  not  easy  to  work  out 
the  motives  which  inspired  it,  political  or 
personal,  or  whatever  they  may  have 
been.  Fortunately,  now,  it  makes  no  dif- 
ference what  these  motives  were,  or  by 
whom  the  act  was  suggested. 

For  reasons  which  I  need  not  discuss, 
the  owners  of  the  three  remaining  estates 
(Mr.  Hopkins  and  Mr.  Crocker  were  no 
longer  living)  and  their  successors  were 
unable  to  give  any  assistance  in  the  strug- 
gle for  the  endowment  of  the  university. 
It  was  necessary  for  Mrs.  Stanford  to 
make  the  fight  alone  and  at  her  own  cost. 
[19] 


THE  STORY  OF 


It  should  be  said  that  none  of  the  pres- 
ent owners  or  managers  of  the  Southern 
Pacific  were  in  any  way  concerned  in  this 
matter.  The  entire  ownership  and  con- 
trol of  the  railway  company  was  changed 
at  the  end  of  the  century.  It  is  also  fair 
to  say  that  the  business  man's  point  of  view 
was  wholly  adverse  to  the  continuance  of 
university  work.  It  seemed  impossible  to 
save  the  estate  and  the  university  together. 
All  receipts  of  the  railroads  (there 
were  no  profits)  were  needed  to  con- 
tinue its  operations,  and  to  spend  current 
receipts  in  the  maintenance  of  a  univer- 
sity seemed  to  others  interested  in  the  sta- 
bility of  the  railway  system  both  wasteful 
and  dangerous.  A  way  out  was  to  "stop 
the  circus,"  to  use  an  expression  then  for 
the  first  time  applied  to  a  university.  On 
the  other  hand,  to  Mrs.  Stanford  the  estate 
existed  solely  for  the  benefit  of  the  univer- 
sity. To  save  the  estate  on  these  terms 
[20] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


was  to  her  like  throwing  over  the  passen- 
gers to  lighten  the  ship.  And  as  matters 
turned  out,  the  university,  the  estate  and 
the  railway  were  all  saved  alike. 

Perhaps  we  can  get  at  the  nature  of  this 
government  suit  from  a  couple  of  letters 
written  at  the  time.  I  find  on  the  uni- 
versity files  a  letter  sent  in  November, 
1894,  to  President  Eliot  of  Harvard.  In 
this  letter  I  said: 

"I  recognize  of  course  that  public  sentiment 
can  not  be  formed  without  a  basis  of  knowl- 
edge. The  peculiar  conditions  in  which  this 
university  finds  itself  are  not  easily  stated  to 
the  public.  There  are  internal  reasons  why  we 
can  not  well  take  the  country  into  confidence. 
Some  of  these  reasons  are  connected  with  the 
relations  of  the  Stanford  heirs.  Others  arise 
from  our  relations  to  our  future  partner,  in 
whose  power  we  are,  until  the  government  suit 
is  disposed  of,  that  is,  until  the  settlement  of 
the  estate. 

"The  grounds  of  the  government  suit,  in 
[21] 


THE  STORY  OF 


brief,  are  these.  The  Central  Pacific  Railroad 
was  regarded  as  an  impossibility  by  most  of 
the  people  of  California.  Its  builders  ex- 
hausted their  funds  and  their  credit  and  tried 
in  vain  to  get  help  from  every  quarter,  even 
after  receiving  large  donations  of  land  then 
worthless.  The  U.  S.  government  came  to 
their  aid,  whether  wisely  or  not,  ...  it 
does  not  matter  at  present.  The  road  when 
finished  bore  a  first  mortgage,  covering  all  that 
it  is  now  worth.  The  government  took  a  sec- 
ond mortgage  upon  it  as  security  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  debt  due  for  the  bonds  it  had  ad- 
vanced in  aid  of  the  corporation.  .  .  . 

"There  is  a  law  in  California  by  which  the 
original  stockholders  in  a  corporation  are  per- 
sonally liable  for  its  debts,  if  suit  be  begun 
within  three  years  after  the  organization  of  the 
corporation.  This  law  was  intended  to  check 
'wild-cat'  speculations. 

"It  is  claimed  that  under  this  law  the  estates 
of  Stanford  and  Huntington  are  still  liable 
for  the  amount  of  the  second  mortgage,  to 
come  due  in  a  few  years.  It  is  claimed  that 
the  three-years'  limitation  does  not  hold 
[22] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


against  the  government.  This  question  of  lia- 
bility had  not  been  raised  when  the  estates  of 
the  two  remaining  partners  were  distributed, 
and  its  enforcement  would  be  possible  as 
against  the  Stanford  estate  alone,  as  Mr. 
Huntington,  being  alive,  can  withdraw  his  in- 
terests to  Mexico,  should  the  suit  against  Mr. 
Stanford  be  successful.  Meanwhile,  by  the 
way,  the  question  is  tested  for  him  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  Stanford  estate,  the  railroad  in- 
terests of  which  are  in  his  hands  as  president 
of  the  road.  .  .  . 

"It  is  believed  by  all  jurists  whom  we  have 
consulted  that  the  government  has  no  case. 
The  limitation  of  three  years,  being  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  statute  in  question,  must 
hold  against  the  government  as  against  oth- 
ers. Furthermore,  the  aid  extended  by  the 
government  was  not  a  debt  incurred  in  busi- 
ness of  the  corporation. 

"However  this  may  be,  the  courts  will  de- 
cide justly.  Our  anxiety  is  that  they  may  de- 
cide speedily. 

"As  to  the  various  criticisms  which  you  men- 
tion, permit  me  a  word.  In  all  personal  mat- 
[23] 


THE  STORY  OF 


ters  Mr.  Stanford  was  perfectly  truthful  and 
just.  Except  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  di- 
vision of  the  earnings  and  bonds  of  the  Central 
Pacific  and  the  fact  that  its  affairs  were  not 
made  public,  I  have  never  heard  his  railroad 
career  seriously  criticised.  In  California  he 
had  a  very  wide  following  among  the  best  men, 
men  who  liked  and  respected  him,  not  on  ac- 
count of  his  wealth  and  railroad  connections, 
but  rather  in  spite  of  them.  In  all  the  rail- 
road war  through  which  this  state  is  passing, 
no  responsible  person  has  uttered  a  slur 
against  Mr.  Stanford  or  against  the  uni- 
versity. 

"It  is  not  true  that  Mr.  Stanford  pretended 
to  give  the  university  a  dollar  more  than  he 
gave.  He  gave  the  three  farms,  formerly  val- 
ued at  $5,000,000,  in  these  times  worth  much 
less;  all  the  movable  stock  upon  them,  about 
$1,000,000  more;  the  university  buildings  cost- 
ing $1,250,000;  and  by  will  $2,500,000  in  cash. 
It  was  agreed  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stanford  that 
each  should  be  the  residuary  legatee  of  the 
other,  and  that  whichever  should  survive 
should  devote  the  rest  of  his  or  her  life  and 
[24] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


estate  to  the  university.  The  Stanford  estate 
is  therefore  the  university's  endowment.  Not 
in  law,  but  in  fact,  the  estate  is  the  university. 
It  was  Mr.  Stanford's  feeling,  and  I  was  fully 
aware  of  it,  that  should  his  wife  survive  him, 
she  should  be  free  to  endow  the  university  and 
to  control  it  as  he  had  done.  No  one  has  ever 
struggled  more  loyally  to  do  so  than  Mrs. 
Stanford.  Since  her  husband  died  we  have  not 
received  a  dollar  of  his  money,  but  the  uni- 
versity has  gone  on  without  check  or  hindrance, 
though  at  times  she  has  been  forced  to  give  up 
luxuries  and  to  limit  her  expenses  in  every  con- 
ceivable way.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  she  has 
each  year  given  me  a  personal  bond  for  all  she 
thinks  that  she  can  raise  from  the  farms  and 
from  her  own  small  personal  property.  Her 
devotion  to  the  work  is  absolute  and  she  is  giv- 
ing her  life  to  it.  When  she  loses,  she  will 
die. 

"The  lands  are  unsalable  only  because  the 
deed  of  gift  prohibits  their  sale.  In  Mr.  Stan- 
ford's lifetime  they  were  conducted  as  parks. 
When  they  came  into  our  hands  their  products 
fell  short  by  $10,000  to  $20,000  per  month  of 
[25] 


THE  STORY  OF 


meeting  the  pay-rolls.  This  year  under  Mrs. 
Stanford's  direction  they  have  yielded  upwards 
of  $50,000  above  expenses.  The  sale  of  colts 
is  a  source  of  revenue,  now  that  the  reputation 
of  the  Palo  Alto  stud  is  made. 

"No  cash  has  ever  been  set  aside  in  advance, 
for  very  simple  reasons.  I  could  not  ask  for 
it.  Mr.  Stanford  was  not  expecting  sudden 
death,  financial  panics,  nor  an  attack  from  the 
government.  He  paid  in  cash  all  salaries  and 
all  bills,  placed  no  limits  on  me,  and  on  his 
sudden  death  left  no  debts  against  the  uni- 
versity. There  are  now  no  debts  left  against 
his  estate,  which  is  appraised  at  $17,000,000, 
except  the  government  claim  which  acts  as  an 
injunction  tying  everything  up.  It  is  not  true 
that  Mr.  Stanford  tried  to  'rear  a  personal 
monument  by  a  good  use  of  ill-gotten  money.' 
No  one  ever  gave  money  in  a  more  generous 
spirit,  and  there  have  not  been  many  great 
givers  who  placed  so  few  restrictions  on  their 
gifts.  Personal  vanity  does  not  give  without 
restrictions  in  its  own  interest.  He  claimed 
that  no  man  in  California  was  the  poorer  for 
Jiis  wealth,  which  was  true.  It  never  occurred 
[26] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


to  him  that  it  was  'ill-gotten'  or  needed  any 
apology. 

"I  know  better  than  any  one  else,  except  his 
wife,  can,  how  genuine  Mr.  Stanford's  interest 
was.  He  treated  me,  and  through  me,  the  uni- 
versity, with  perfect  truthfulness  and  justice. 
For  my  part  and  that  of  the  faculty,  we  have 
tried  to  make  the  fund  in  our  possession  count 
every  dollar  for  a  dollar  to  the  best  advance- 
ment of  higher  education. 

"As  to  the  public  at  large,  in  time  they  will 
judge  us  by  our  fruits,  if  we  are  allowed  to  live 
to  bear  fruitage." 

To  a  loyal  friend  of  Governor  Stanford, 
Senator  Hoar  of  Massachusetts,  I  wrote 
this  on  June  20, 1894: 

"You  will  pardon  me  for  writing  to  you  to 
express  my  very  great  pleasure  and  that  of 
Mrs.  Stanford  in  the  stand  you  have  taken  in 
defence  of  Senator  Stanford's  memory  and  in 
the  effort  you  have  made  toward  the  protection 
of  the  university  from  the  evil  effects  of  pro- 
longed litigation  in  which  its  endowment  would 
be  at  stake. 

[27] 


THE  STORY  OF 


"You  who  knew  Senator  Stanford  well  know 
that  the  recent  attack  of  Mr.  G on  his  mo- 
tives was  without  foundation  in  fact.  The 
feeling  of  revenge  at  any  real  or  supposed 
slight  on  the  part  of  the  legislature  in  connec- 
tion with  the  State  University  had  nothing  to 
do  with  his  actions.  He  was  not  a  man  to 
cherish  that  kind  of  feelings.  The  sole  basis 
that  accusation  had  was  this:  Mr.  Stanford 
acted  for  a  few  days  as  a  member  of  the  State 
Board  of  Regents.  He  was  very  much  sur- 
prised to  find  that  this  board  ignored  the 
recommendations  of  the  president  of  the  uni- 
versity, and  in  general  were  disposed  to  treat 
the  university  chairs  as  personal  'spoils/  This 
led  Mr.  Stanford  to  doubt  whether,  if  he  should 
endow  a  university  for  California,  it  would  be 
wise  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  a  political  board 
of  regents.  These  conditions  in  the  State 
Board  have  now  changed  for  the  better.  Mr. 
Stanford  always  spoke  most  kindly  of  the 
State  University.  He  frequently  consulted 
with  its  professors  and  it  was  a  great  pleasure 
for  him  to  know  that  the  new  institution 
has  in  every  way  helped  the  old  one.  The 
[28] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


friendly  rivalry  has  been  most  salutary  to 
both.  Instead  of  450  college  students  in 
one  school  as  in  1890,  there  are  now  1,700 
students  in  the  two,  besides  the  professional 
classes. 

"As  a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stan- 
ford founded  the  university  with  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  putting  their  fortune  to  the  best  use 
of  their  country.  I  know  Mr.  Stanford's  mo- 
tives in  this  regard  as  well  as  one  man  can 
know  the  motives  of  another,  and  I  know  that 
no  feeling  of  revenge  and  no  selfish  feeling  en- 
tered into  these  motives. 

"The  university  has  now  safely  passed  every 
other  serious  difficulty.  Mrs.  Stanford  has  no 
other  purpose  in  life  than  that  of  carrying  out 
every  detail  of  her  husband's  purposes.  Her 
devotion  has  shown  itself  in  maintaining  the 
work  of  the  university  unimpaired  during  this 
period  of  hard  times,  while  the  estates  are  in 
probate  and  therefore  not  available  for  uni- 
versity purposes. 

"It  would,  I  believe,  be  a  great  national  ca- 
lamity if  this  great  fund  were  lost  to  higher 
education.  It  would  be  almost  as  great  a  ca- 
[29] 


THE  STORY  OF 


lamity  if  it  were  exposed  to  the  delay  and  loss 
of  prolonged  litigation. 

"I  assure  you  that  the  great  majority  of  the 
self-respecting  people  of  California  are  very 
grateful  to  you  for  what  you  have  done 
towards  the  protection  of  the  university  en- 
dowment." 

The  story  of  the  passing  of  the  great 
suit  is  known  to  all  students  of  the  uni- 
versity, as  well  as  to  all  friends  of  higher 
education.  It  was  brought  to  trial  in  San 
Francisco  in  the  United  States  District 
Court,  and  the  university  side  of  the  ques- 
tion had  the  strong  support  of  the  great 
jurist,  John  Garber.  The  decision  of 
Judge  Ross  was  against  the  claim  of  the 
government.  It  was  appealed  and  came 
before  Judges  Morrow,  Gilbert  and  Haw- 
ley,  who  again  found  no  merit  in  the  gov- 
ernment contention.  It  was  appealed  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
and  here  our  case  seemed  hopeless.  The 
[30] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


Supreme  Court  moves  slowly,  and  our  life- 
blood  was  ebbing  fast.  It  takes  money  to 
run  a  university,  and  our  money  was  al- 
most gone.  To  delay  the  matter  was  to 
destroy  us,  and  no  one  but  ourselves  had 
any  interest  in  pushing  along  the  decision. 
Finally  Mrs.  Stanford  went  to  Wash- 
ington to  appeal  to  President  Cleveland. 
She  told  him  our  story  and  beseeched  him 
to  use  his  influence  for  a  speedy  settle- 
ment. Once  for  all,  let  us  know  the  fu- 
ture. At  last,  President  Cleveland  took 
her  point  of  view,  and  through  his  influ- 
ence the  Stanford  case  was  placed  on  the 
calendar  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  for  speedy  trial.  Joseph  Choate, 
whose  name  every  Stanford  man  should 
hold  in  grateful  memory,  supplemented 
the  work  of  John  Garber.  The  case  came 
to  trial,  and  by  a  unanimous  decision,  writ- 
ten by  Justice  Harlan,  Stanford  Univer- 
sity was  finally  free! 

[31] 


THE  STORY  OF 


The  students  celebrated  the  victory  as 
college  boys  can.  The  United  States 
Postoffice  on  the  campus,  a  wooden  shack 
long  since  removed,  was  painted  cardinal 
red,  to  its  great  improvement  in  appear- 
ance. The  founder  and  the  president  re- 
ceived their  ovation.  The  future  of  the 
university  was  forever  assured. 

This  was  the  end  of  the  dark  days,  but 
not  of  days  trying  and  difficult.  There 
were  still  eight  millions  of  dollars  to  be 
paid.  There  was  still  the  uncertainty  as 
to  whether  Mrs.  Stanford  could  survive  to 
pay  it,  and  the  estate  must  come  into  her 
hands  before  she  could  give  it  to  the  uni- 
versity. She  made  many  attempts  to  has- 
ten this  transfer.  At  one  time,  we  have 
the  pathetic  figure  of  the  good  woman  go- 
ing to  the  Queen's  Jubilee  in  London,  go- 
ing on  board  the  steamer  in  New  York 
with  all  her  actual  possessions,  half  a  mil- 
lion dollars'  worth  of  jewels  in  a  suitcase 
[32] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


carried  in  her  hand.  She  hoped  to  sell 
these  to  advantage,  when  all  the  world  was 
gathered  in  London.  But  the  market  was 
not  good,  and  three-fourths  of  them  she 
brought  back  to  California  again. 

And  this  seems  the  appropriate  place 
for  the  story  of  the  jewel  fund.  It  is  told 
in  an  address  made  at  the  foundation  of 
the  Library  Building,  and  again  and 
finally  in  a  resolution  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees. 

On  May  15, 1905, 1  said: 

"There  was  once  a  man — a  real  man,  vigor- 
ous, wealthy  and  powerful.  He  loved  his  wife 

greatly,  for  she,  wise,  loyal, devoted,  was 

worthy  of  such  love.  And  because^  among  all 
the  crystals  in  all  the  world  the  diamond  is 
the  hardest  and  sparkles  the  brightest,  and  be- 
cause the  ruby  is  most  charming,  and  the  em- 
erald gentlest — the  man  bought  gifts  of  these 
all  for  his  wife. 

"As  the  years  passed  a  great  sorrow  came  to 
them;  their  only  child  died  in  the  glory  of  his 
[33] 


THE  STORY  OF 


youth.  In  their  loneliness  there  came  to  these 
two  the  longing  to  help  other  children,  to  use 
their  wealth  and  power  to  aid  the  youth  of 
future  generations  to  better  and  stronger  life. 
They  lived  in  California  and  they  loved  Cali- 
fornia ;  an(3.  because  California  loved  them,  as 
she  loves  all  her  children,  this  man  said,  'The 
children  of  California  shall  be  my  children.' 
To  make  this  true  in  very  fact  he  built  for 
them  a  beautiful  'Castle  in  Spain,'  with  clois- 
ters and  towers,  and  'red  tiled  roofs  against 
the  azure  sky' — for  'skies  are  bluest  in  the 
heart  of  Spain.'  This  castle,  the  Castle  of 
Hope,  wkkh  they  called  the  university,ythey 
dedicated  to  all  who  might  enter  its  gates,  and 
it  became  to  them  the  fulfilment  of  the  dream 
of  years — a  dream  of  love  and  hope,  of  faith 
in  God  and  good  will  toward  men. 

"In  the  course  of  time  the  man  died.  The 
power  he  bore  vanished;  his  wealth  passed  to 
other  hands;  the  work  he  had  begun  seemed 
likely  to  fail.  But  the  woman  rose  from  her 
second  great  sorrow  and  set  herself  bravely  to 
the  task  of  completing  the  work  asH&eir  hus- 
band had  planned  it.  'The  children  of  Call- 
[34] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


fornia  shall  be  my  children' — that  thought 
once  spoken  could  never  be  unsaid.  The  doors 
of  the  castle  once  opened  could  never  be  closed. 
To  those  who  helped  her  in  these  days  she  said : 
'We  may  lose  the  farms,  the  railways,  the 
bonds,  but  still  the  jewels  remain.  The  uni- 
versity can  be  kept  alive  by  these  till  the  skies 
clear  and  the  money  which  was  destined  for  the 
future  shall  come  into  the  future's  hands. 
The  university  shall  be  kept  open.  When 
there  is  no  other  way,  there  are  still  the  jewels.' 
"Because  there  always  remained  this  last  re- 
source, the  woman  never  knew  defeat.  No  one 
can  who  strives  for  no  selfish  end.  'God's  er- 
rands never  fail,'  and  her  errand  was  one  of 
good  will  and  mercy.  And  when  the  days  were 
darkest,  the  time  came  when  it  seemed  the  jew- 
els must  be  sold.  Across  the  sea  to  the  great 
city  this  sorrowful,  heroic  woman  journeyed 
alone  with  the  bag  of  jewels  in  her  hand,  that 
she  might  sell  them  to  the  money  changers  that 
flocked  to  the  Queen's  Jubilee.  Sad,  pathetic 
mission,  fruitless  in  the  end,  but  full  of  all 
piomise  for  the  future  of  the  university, 
founded  in  faith  and  hope  and  love — the 
[35] 


THE  STORY  OP 


trinity,   St.   Paul  says,  of  things   that   abide. 

"But  the  jewels  were  not  sold,  save  only  a 
few  of  them,  and  these  served  a  useful  purpose 
in  beginning  anew  the  work  of  building  the  uni- 
versity. A  tiled  roof  was  placed  on  the  library 
building  in  place  of  a  temporary  imitation  of 
painted  iron.  Better  times  came.  The  money 
of  the  estate,  freed  from  litigation,  became 
available  for  its  destined  use.  The  jewels 
found  their  way  back  to  California  to  be  held 
in  reserve  against  another  time  of  need. 

"A  noble  church  was  erected — one  of  the 
noblest  in  the  land,  a  fitting  part  of  the  beau- 
tiful dream  castle,  the  university.  It  needed 
to  make  it  perfect  the  warmth  of  ornamenta- 
tion, the  glory  of  the  old  masters  who  wrought 
'when  art  was  still  religion.'  To  this  end  the 
jewels  were  dedicated.  It  was  an  appropriate 
use,  but  the  need  again  passed.  Other  re- 
sources were  found  to  adorn  the  church — to  fill 
its  windows  with  beautiful  pictures,  to  spread 
upon  its  walls  exquisite  mosaics  like  those  of 
St.  Mark,  rivaling  even  the  precious  stones  of 
Venice. 

"In  the  course  of  time  the  woman  died  also. 
[36] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


She  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  buildings 
of  the  university  completed,  the  cherished  plans 
of  her  husband,  to  which  she  had  devoted  anx- 
ious years,  fully  carried  out.  Death  came  to 
her  in  a  foreign  land,  but  in  a  message  written 
before  her  departure  to  be  read  at  the  laying 
of  the  corner-stone  of  the  great  library  she 
made  known  the  final  destiny  of  the  jewels. 
She  directed  that  they  should  be  sold  and  their  ' 
value  made  a  permanent  endowment  of  the 
library  of  the  university. 

"And  so  the  jewels  have  at  least  come  to  be 
the  enduring  possession  of  all  the  university — 
of  all  who  may  tread  these  fields  or  enter  these 
corridors.  In  the  memory  of  the  earlier  stu- 
dents they  stand  for  the  Quadrangle,  whose 
doors  they  kept  open,  and  for  the  adornment 
of  the  church,  which  shall  be  to  all  generations 
of  students  a  source  of  joy  and  rest,  a  refining 
and  uplifting  influence.  To  the  students  who 
are  to  come  in  future  days  the  message  of  the 
jewels  will  be  read  in  the  books  they  study 
within  these  walls,  and  the  waves  of  their  in- 
fluence spreading  out  shall  touch  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth. 

[37] 


THE  STORY  OF 


"They  say  there  is  a  language  of  precious 
stones,  but  I  know  that  they  speak  in  diverse 
tongues.  Some  diamonds  tell  strange  tales, 
but  not  these  diamonds.  In  the  language  of 
the  jewels  of  Stanford  may  be  read  the  lessons 
of  faith,  of  hope  and  good  will.  They  tell  how 
Stanford  was  founded  in  love  of  the  things  that 
abide." 

It  was  resolved  by  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees on  May  29, 1908,  as  follows: 

"WHEREAS,  it  was  a  cherished  plan  of  Mrs. 
Jane  L.  Stanford  that  all  jewels  left  by  her 
should  be  sold  after  her  death,  and  that  the 
proceeds  (estimated  by  her  at  more  than  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars)  should  be  invested 
as  a  permanent  fund,  of  which  the  income 
should  be  used  exclusively  for  the  purchase  of 
books  for  the  Library  of  the  Leland  Stanford 
Junior  University;  and 

"WHEREAS,  the  pressing  financial  needs  of 
the  university  compelled  her  temporarily  to 
forego  said  plan,  and  to  sell  many  of  said  jew- 
els in  her  lifetime  in  order  to  raise  money  to 
maintain  the  university;  and 
[38] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


"WHEREAS,  by  communication  delivered  to 
this  board  at  its  meeting,  held  February  22, 
1905,  Mrs.  Stanford  declared: 

"  'In  view  of  the  facts  and  of  my  interest  in 
the  future  development  of  the  University 
Library,  I  now  request  the  trustees  to  estab- 
lish and  maintain  a  library  fund,  and  upon  the 
sale  of  said  jewels,  after  my  departure  from 
this  life,  I  desire  that  the  proceeds  therefrom 
be  paid  into  such  fund  and  be  preserved  intact, 
and  invested  in  bonds  or  real  estate  as  a  part 
of  the  capital  of  the  endowment,  and  that  the 
income  therefrom  be  used  exclusively  for  the 
purchase  of  books  and  other  publications.  I 
desire  that  the  fund  be  known  and  designated 
as  the  "Jewel  Fund."  I  have  created  and  se- 
lected a  Library  Committee  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  under  supervision  of  which  all  such 
purchases  should  be  made.'  • 

"Now,  THEREFORE,  in  order  to  carry  out 
said  plan  of  Mrs.  Stanford  and  to  establish 
and  maintain  an  adequate  library  fund,  and  to 
perform  the  promise  made  by  this  board  to 
her,  it  is 

"Resolved,  that  a  fund  of  five  hundred  thou- 
[39] 


THE  STORY  OF 


sand  dollars,  to  be  known  and  designated  as 
the  'Jewel  Fund'  is  hereby  created  and  estab- 
lished, which  fund  shall  be  preserved  intact, 
and  shall  be  separately  invested  and  kept  in- 
vested in  bonds  or  real  estate  by  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  and  the  income  of  said  fund  shall  be 
used  exclusively  in  the  purchase  of  books  and 
other  publications  for  the  Library  of  the  Le- 
land  Stanford  Junior  University,  under  the  su- 
pervision and  direction  of  the  Library  Commit- 
tee of  this  Board  of  Trustees." 

It  was  in  these  dark  days  that  I  was 
asked  by  President  Cleveland,  through 
Mr.  Charles  S.  Hamlin,  to  go  to  Bering 
Sea  to  help  settle  the  fur  seal  disputes. 

Before  I  started,  in  1896,  Mrs.  Stan- 
ford said:  "Now  that  our  affairs  are  look- 
ing so  much  better,  do  you  not  think  that 
I  might  afford  to  bring  back  my  house- 
keeper ?"  Her  servants  then  were  her  sec- 
retary, her  Chinese  cook  and  an  old  man, 
a  servant  of  other  days,  who  served  as 
butler,  without  salary. 
[40] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


It  was  in  these  days,  too,  that  Mrs. 
Stanford,  going  to  Washington  to  settle 
up  the  household  affairs  of  the  mansion 
occupied  while  Mr.  Stanford  was  senator, 
took  four  hundred  dollars  with  her,  lived 
in  the  private  car  owned  by  the  Governor, 
attended  to  the  packing  of  her  goods  and 
the  rental  of  her  house  to  a  senator  from 
New  York,  and  brought  back  $340  of  the 
amount,  which  she  turned  over  to  me,  to 
be  used  for  the  university.  I  have  given 
this  and  other  details  private  and  personal, 
but  full  of  meaning,  as  showing  her  devo- 
tion to  the  university  and  her  utter  unself- 
ishness in  carrying  out  the  plans  made  by 
herself  and  her  husband  for  the  welfare 
of  the  men  and  women  of  the  coming  gen- 
erations of  California  and  of  the  world. 
While  matters  inside  the  faculty  and  the 
details  of  instruction  were  left  to  those 
supposed  to  be  experts  in  these  lines,  for 
this  was  her  husband's  wish,  she  had  al- 
[41] 


THE  STORY  OF 


ways  before  her  his  purposes.  "What 
would  Mr.  Stanford  do  under  these  con- 
ditions?" was  always  her  first  question; 
and  in  almost  every  instance  this  question 
led  to  a  wise  decision. 

To  outside  suggestions  as  to  this  or  that, 
she  used  to  reply:  "I  will  never  concern 
myself  with  the  religion,  the  politics  or  the 
love  affairs  of  any  professor  in  Stanford 
University."  And  this  resolution  she  re- 
ligiously kept. 

With  the  passing  of  the  government 
suit,  conditions  looked  brighter.  The 
payment  of  the  eight  millions  went  on 
very  slowly,  because  the  railway  holdings 
could  not  be  broken  and  must  be  sold  as 
a  whole  if  at  all.  The  taxes  on  properties 
yielding  no  income  became  an  intolerable 
burden.  Besides,  it  was  apparent  that 
the  original  enabling  act  under  which  the 
Board  of  Trustees  was  organized  con- 
[42] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


tained  grave  defects,  certain  to  invalidate 
any  actions  of  this  Board  if  they  should 
undertake  to  control  the  funds  of  the  uni- 
versity. For  this  reason,  mainly,  the 
Board  of  Trustees,  until  after  1900,  ex- 
isted in  name  only,  Mrs.  Stanford  being 
in  fact  the  sole  trustee. 

In  1899  the  railroad  holdings  were  sold, 
to  good  advantage  as  prices,  thanks  to 
the  good  office  of  a  well-known  banker 
whose  name  I  am  glad  to  speak,  James 
Speyer,  and  the  estate  at  once  passed  out 
of  debt.  Finally,  piece  by  piece,  it  passed 
into  Mrs.  Stanford's  hands,  and  each  piece 
was  at  once  deeded  to  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees. The  Board  of  Trustees  was  legal- 
ized by  a  change  in  the  State  Constitu- 
tion. The  university  was  by  the  same 
means  relieved  of  part  of  the  burden  of  its 
taxes.  The  changes  in  the  State  Consti- 
tution were  passed  by  the  largest  majority 
[43] 


THE  STORY  OF 


ever  recorded  in  California.  At  the  earli- 
est possible  moment,  Mrs.  Stanford  again 
and  in  full  transferred  the  whole  estate  to 
the  board,  reserving  for  herself  a  relatively 
small  sum  "to  play  with,"  as  she  said,  but 
in  fact  to  give  herself  occupation  and 
means  to  carry  out  in  her  own  way  other 
plans  of  strengthening  the  university  and 
of  helping  mankind.  The  Board  of  Trus- 
tees was  then  organized  as  a  working  body. 
Mrs.  Stanford  became  its  first  actual  pres- 
ident, and  this  history  passes  over  into  the 
bright  days  of  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth 
century. 

Mrs.  Stanford  then  left  the  university 
for  a  trip  around  the  world  by  way  of 
Australia  and  Ceylon.  This  was  not  that 
she  wanted  to  see  the  world,  or  to  be  ab- 
sent from  her  beloved  Palo  Alto,  but  that 
she  wished  to  give  to  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees absolute  freedom  in  taking  up  their 
great  responsibilities.  She  wished  them 
[44] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


to  handle  the  accumulated  funds  on  their 
own  initiative,  without  suggestion  from 
herself. 

The  rest  of  the  story  can  he  told  by  oth- 
ers, for  it  is  an  open  record.  The  whole 
may  be  summed  up  in  these  words  of  Mrs. 
Stanford  in  a  letter  written  to  me  Septem- 
ber 3, 1898: 

"Every  dollar  I  can  rightfully  call  mine  is 
sacredly  laid  on  the  altar  of  my  love  for  the 
university,  and  thus  it  ever  shall  be." 

That  all  this  may  seem  more  real,  I 
venture  to  quote  a  few  paragraphs  from 
personal  letters  of  Mrs.  Stanford  written 
in  the  dark  days  from  1893  to  1899. 

On  November  24,  1895,  Mrs.  Stanford 
wrote  from  the  university: 

"It  has  been  my  policy  to  say  as  little  about 
my   financial   affairs   to   the   outside   world  as 
possible,  but  I  feel  sure  that  I  am  doing  my- 
self and  our  blessed  work  injustice  by  allowing 
[45] 


THE  STORY  OF 


the  impression  among  all  classes  to  feel  certain 
there  is  plenty  of  money  at  my  command,  the 
future  is  assured,  the  battle  fought  and  won. 
.  .  .  I  only  ask  righteous  justice.  I  ask 
not  for  myself,  but  that  I  may  be  able  to  dis- 
charge my  duty  and  loyalty  to  the  one  who 
trusted  me,  and  loved  me,  and  loves  me  still. 
I  am  so  poor  myself  that  I  can  not  this  year 
give  to  any  charity;  not  even  do  I  give  this 
festive  season  to  any  of  my  family.  I  do  not 
tell  you  this,  kind  friend,  in  a  complaining 
way,  for  when  one  has  pleasant  surroundings, 
all  we  want  to  eat  and  wear,  added  to  this  have 
those  in  their  lives  we  can  count  on  as  friends, 
it  would  be  sinful  to  complain.  I  repeat  it 
only  that  you,  my  friend,  may  know,  I  ask 
only  justice  to  the  dear  ones  gone  from  earth 
life  and  the  living  one  left. 

"I  am  willing  you  should  speak  plainly  to 
any  one  who  may  question  as  to  the  university 
or  myself.  I  have  many  devoted  and  true, 
loyal  friends  in  Washington,  and  I  am  sure, 
did  they  know  I  was  kept  from  my  rights,  they 
would  speak  their  sentiments  openly,  and  when 
it  was  known  a  public  sentiment  was  in  my 
[46] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


favor  and  against  their  unfairness,  it  would 
cause  a  different  course  to  be  pursued  toward 
me.  I  shall  henceforth  speak  plainly,  and  I 
desire  you  to  do  so.  You  will  meet  our  good 
President,  Mr.  Cleveland,  my  good  and  true 
friend,  Secretary  Carlisle,  Mr.  John  Foster  and 
many  others,  and  you  .  .  .  can  do  our 
blessed  work  good,  and  God  will  bless  the  act 
and  bring  fruit  to  bear  from  the  seeds  sown. 
I  have  kept  myself  and  my  affairs  in  the  back- 
ground. It  has  been  an  inspiration  from  the 
source  from  which  all  good  comes,  from  my 
Father  God — I  trust  Him  to  lead  me  all  along 
the  rest  of  the  journey  of  life.  He  has  led  me 
thus  far  through  the  deep  waters,  and  joy  will 
come,  for  He  never  deserts  the  widow,  the  child- 
less, the  orphan.  I  have  His  promise  'blessed 
are  those  who  mourn,  for  they  shall  be  com- 
forted.' " 

On  the  same  day  she  said : 

"Everything  is  going  on  smoothly  as  far  as 
I  know  at  the  university.  The  boys  are  wild 
over  the  game  to  be  played.  I  hope  they  will 

[47] 


THE  STORY  OF 


win   because   my   boys   will  be   happy   if  they 


win/ 


On  July  20,  1896,  she  wrote  to  a  can- 
didate for  a  professorship : 

"The  university  still  is  restricted  and  limited 
in  its  ambitions  and  its  aims,  because  of  my  in- 
ability to  increase  the  number  of  students  or 
the  number  of  professors.  The  gift  of  $2,- 
500,000  in  bonds  which  I  have  by  the  grace  of 
God  been  enabled  to  give  to  the  trustees  for 
the  present  and  future  maintenance  of  the  uni- 
versity brings  in  a  monthly  income  of  $10,000, 
while  the  actual  expenses  for  the  faculty  and 
the  president  and  the  necessary  matters  bring 
the  sum  total  of  expenses  per  month  to  $19,- 
000.  This  $9,000  I  am  obliged  to  furnish  my- 
self through  the  strictest  economy  and  the 
husbanding  of  resources;  consequently  I  am 
not  increasing  expenses  but  on  the  contrary 
shall  retrench  in  the  future." 

On  December  28,  1895,  she  said: 

"I  must  confess  to  a  feeling  of  great  pride 
[48] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


in  our  entire  body  of  students,  both  male  and 
female,  and  I  think  we  are  all  in  a  way  under 
obligations  to  them  for  their  uniformly  good 
conduct,  and  a  desire,  as  my  dear  husband  once 
expressed  it,  to  be  ladies  and  gentlemen." 

On  July  29, 1895,  she  wrote: 

"I  send  a  precious  letter  from  Mr.  Andrew 
White  for  you  to  read.  I  read  it  with  a  heart 
running  over  with  various  emotions.  Mr. 
Stanford  esteemed  him  so  highly  I  could  not 
but  feel  like  asking  God  to  let  my  loved  ones 
in  heaven  know  the  contents  of  this  letter.  I 
prize  this  letter  beyond  my  ability  to  express. 
It  lifted  my  soul  from  its  heaviness.  My 
heart  is  one  unceasing  prayer  to  the  Allwise, 
All  Merciful  one,  that  all  will  be  well  for  the 
future  of  the  good  work  under  your  care. 
When  the  end  of  our  troubles  is  over,  all  (these 
letters)  will  be  placed  in  your  hands  for  future 
reading  by  our  students,  a  story  for  them  when 
I  have  passed  into  peace." 

Soon  after,  she  wrote : 
[49] 


THE  STORY  OF 


"I  return  herewith  Mr.  Choate's  kind  letter. 
God  bless  him,  for  he  was  a  friend  indeed." 

Again,  on  August  15,  1895 : 

"It  gives  me  great  satisfaction  to  read  Pro- 
fessor Stillman's  letter.  I  perceive  besides  the 
loyalty  to  the  university,  the  noble,  tender  loy- 
alty to  my  dear  husband's  memory.  .  .  . 
I  prize  him  as  a  professor,  for  he  was  the  only 
selection  made  by  Mr.  Stanford.  He  knew  him 
well  and  judged  his  character  rightly  as  this 
act  on  his  part  has  proved.  ...  I  always 
enjoy  my  home-coming.  Even  its  desolation  is 
sacred  to  my  heart.  It  holds  many  dear  mem- 
ories that  no  one  on  earth  knows  but  myself." 

After  the  decision  of  Judge  Ross 
(July  6,  1895),  she  wrote: 

"I  dare  not  let  my  soul  rejoice  over  the  fu- 
ture. It  must  be  more  sure  than  it  is  now. 
I  hope  and  pray  that  the  final  decision  will  be 
as  sure  as  the  first.  It  means  more  to  me  than 
you  or  the  world  have  dreamed.  It  means  an 
[50] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


unsullied,  untarnished  name  as  a  blessed  herit- 
age to  the  university.  My  husband  often  used 
to  say:  'A  good  name  is  better  than  riches.' 
God  can  not  but  be  touched  by  my  constant 
pleading,  and  this  first  decision  by  Judge  Ross 
makes  me  humble  that  I,  so  unworthy,  should 
have  received  the  smallest  attention." 

From  Paris,  August  30,  1897,  she 
wrote : 

"I  wish  the  rest  of  my  responsibilities  caused 
me  as  little  care  as  does  the  internal  work- 
ing of  the  good  work.  I  am  only  anxious  to 
furnish  you  the  funds  to  pay  the  needs  re- 
quired. I  could  live  on  bread  and  water  to  do 
this,  my  part,  and  would  feel  that  God  and  my 
loved  ones  in  the  life  beyond  this  smiled  on  the 
efforts  to  ensure  the  future  of  my  dear  hus- 
band's work  to  better  humanity." 

Again,  in  1897,  she  wrote  to  her  trusted 
solicitor,  Russell  Wilson: 

"I  stand  almost  alone  in  this  blessed  work 
[51] 


THE  STORY  OF 


left  to  my  care,  and  I  want  and  need  the  presi- 
dent's support  and  his  helpfulness  in  this  work 
as  far  as  he  can  support  me.  There  are  plenty 
who  are  interested  in  the  affairs  of  the  estate 
with  me,  but  few  in  the  university." 

In  July,  1898,  she  said: 

"If  I  am  able  to  keep  the  university  in  the 
condition  it  is  now,  I  shall  be  more  than  thank- 
ful. $15,000  a  month  is  a  great  expenditure, 
and  exhausts  my  ingenuity  and  resources  to 
such  an  extent  that  had  I  not  the  university 
so  close  to  my  heart  I  would  relieve  myself  of 
this  enormous  burden  and  take  rest  and  recre- 
ation for  the  next  year.  But  I  prefer  to  see 
the  good  work  going  on  in  its  present  condi- 
tion, and  I  am  not  promising  myself  anything 
further  for  the  future  until  the  skies  are 
brighter  than  they  are  now," 

On  December  14, 1900,  she  repeats: 

"I  could  lay  down  my  life  for  the  university. 
Not  for   any   pride   in   its   perpetuating  the 
[52] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


names  of  our  dear  son  and  ourselves,  its  found- 
ers, but  for  the  sincere  hope  I  cherish  in  its 
sending  forth  to  the  world  grand  men  and 
women  who  will  aid  in  developing  the  best  there 
is  to  be  found  in  human  nature." 

These  extracts,  largely  from  business 
letters,  will  show  better  than  any  words 
of  mine  her  spirit  and  her  faith.  These 
must  justify  and  give  life  to  the  words  I 
used  on  February  28,  1905,  the  date  on 
which  Mrs.  Stanford  passed  away  in 
Honolulu: 

"The  sudden  death  of  Mrs.  Stanford  has 
come  as  a  great  shock  to  all  of  us.  She  has 
been  so  brave  and  strong  that  we  hoped  for  her 
return  well  rested,  and  that  her  last  look  on 
earth  might  be  on  her  beloved  Palo  Alto.  But 
it  was  a  joy  to  her  to  have  been  spared  so 
long;  to  have  lived  to  see  the  work  of  her  hus- 
band's life  and  hers  firmly  and  fully  estab- 
lished. 

"Hers  has  been  a  life  of  the  most  perfect 
[53] 


THE  STORY  OF 


devotion  both  to  her  own  and  her  husband's 
ideals.  If  in  the  years  we  knew  her  she  ever 
had  a  selfish  feeling,  no  one  ever  detected  it. 
All  her  thoughts  were  of  the  university  and  of 
the  way  to  make  it  effective  for  wisdom  and 
righteousness. 

"No  one  outside  of  the  university  can  under- 
stand the  difficulties  in  her  way  in  the  final  es- 
tablishment of  the  university,  and  her  patient 
deeds  of  self-sacrifice  can  be  known  only  to 
those  who  saw  them  from  day  to  day.  Some 
day  the  world  may  understand  a  part  of  this. 
It  will  then  know  her  for  the  wisest,  as  well  as 
the  most  generous,  friend  of  learning  in  our 
time.  It  will  know  her  as  the  most  loyal  and 
most  devoted  of  wives.  What  she  did  was  al- 
ways the  best  she  could  do.  Wise,  devoted, 
steadfast,  prudent,  patient  and  just — every 
good  word  we  can  use  was  hers  by  right.  The 
men  and  women  of  the  university  feel  the  loss 
not  alone  of  the  most  generous  of  helpers,  but 
of  the  nearest  of  friends." 

To  these  words,  spoken  when  the  shock 
of  the  death  of  the  mother  of  the  university 
[54] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


first  came  to  her  children,  I  added  later  a 
single  thought  as  to  Mrs.  Stanford's  con- 
ception of  the  future  development  of  the 
university: 

"It  should  be,  above  all  other  things,  sound 
and  good,  using  its  forces  not  for  mental  de- 
velopment alone,  but  for  physical,  moral  and 
spiritual  growth  and  strength.  It  should 
make  not  only  scholars,  but  men  and  women, 
alert,  fearless,  wise,  God-fearing,  skilled  in  co- 
operation and  eager  to  do  their  part,  what- 
ever the  struggle  into  which  they  may  be 
thrown.  To  this  end  she  would  have  the  uni- 
versity not  large  but  choice.  There  should  be 
no  more  students  than  could  be  well  taken  care 
of,  no  more  departments  than  could  be  placed 
in  master  hands,  no  teachers  to  whom  the  stu- 
dents could  not  look  up  as  to  men  whose  work 
and  life  should  be  an  inspiration  to  them. 
The  buildings  should  be  beautiful,  for  to  see 
beautiful  things  in  a  land  of  beauty  is  one  of 
the  greatest  elements  in  the  refinement  of  clean 
men  and  women.  Great  libraries  and  great 
collections  the  university  should  have,  but  libra- 
[55] 


THE  STORY  OF 


ries  and  collections  should  be  chosen  for  their 
fitness  in  the  training  of  men.  And  with  all 
the  activities  of  athletics,  of  scholarly  re- 
search, of  the  applications  of  science  to  engi- 
neering, the  spirit  of  'self-devotion  and  of  self- 
restraint,'  by  which  lives  have  been  'made  beau- 
tiful and  sweet'  through  all  the  centuries, 
should  rise  above  all  else,  dominating  the  lower 
aspirations  and  activities  as  the  great  church 
towers  above  the  red  tiles  of  the  lower  build- 
ings. But  for  all  this,  the  Church  should  ex- 
ist for  men — for  the  actual  men  who  enter  its 
actual  doors — not  men  for  the  Church.  For 
this  reason,  any  special  alliance  with  any  of 
the  historic  churches  of  Christendom  is  forever 
forbidden. 

"We  do  not  yet  see  all  these  things.  Rome 
was  not  built  in  a  day,  nor  Stanford  in  a  cen- 
tury. But  as  the  old  pioneers  returning  now 
behold  in  solid  stone  the  dream-castles  of  their 
college  days,  so  shall  you,  Stanford  men  and 
women,  find  here  as  you  come  back  to  future 
reunions  the  university  of  your  dreams,  the 
university  of  great  libraries  and  noble  teach- 
ers, the  university  of  the  perfect  democracy  of 
[56] 


A  GOOD  WOMAN 


literature  and  science,  'of  self-devotion  and  of 
self-restraint,'  the  university  in  which  earnest 
men  and  women  find  the  best  possible  prepara- 
tion for  work  in  life,  the  university  which  sends 
out  men  who  will  make  the  future  of  the  repub- 
lic worthy  of  the  glories  of  the  past,  the  uni- 
versity of  the  plans  and  hopes  of  Leland  Stan- 
ford, the  university  of  the  faith  and  work  and 
prayer  of  Jane  Lathrop  Stanford." 


[57] 


OVERDUE.  **      : 


JUL  2  1940KIAY8   196° 


Ic, 


